The Congress on Thursday demanded a white paper detailing USAID support to the country’s government and non-government institutions after President Donald Trump alleged the agency had spent $21 million to influence voter turnout in India to “get somebody else elected”.

While demanding the white paper anticipating the BJP would try to extract political mileage from Trump’s remark, the Congress also dismissed the US President’s comment as “typically nonsensical”.

Speaking at a public event in Miami on Wednesday, Trump had questioned the rationale behind the USAID — the agency that administers American foreign aid and which he is trying to shut down — funding voter turnout in India.

“What do we need to spend $21 million for voter turnout in India? Wow, 21 million dollars! I guess they were trying to get somebody else elected. We’ve got to tell the Indian government…,” Trump said.

He did not say who the “someone else” was or who had received the funds and when.

Responding to this, Congress communications-in-charge Jairam Ramesh posted on X: “USAID is very much in the news these days. It was set up on November 3, 1961. Claims being made by the U.S. President are typically nonsensical to say the least.

“Even so, the Govt of India should bring out a White Paper at the earliest detailing USAID’s support to both governmental and non-governmental institutions in India over the decades.”

Amit Malviya, who heads the BJP’s IT cell, pulled out a series of clips showing Prime Minister Narendra Modi warning against foreign interference in Indian elections during last year’s Lok Sabha polls.

Calling foreign interference in India’s democratic process a matter of great shame, BJP parliamentarian Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday specifically targeted leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi.

The BJP had earlier too charged the Congress with seeking foreign help in elections.

Ahead of the 2017 Assembly elections in Gujarat, Modi had accused former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of conspiring with Pakistan to keep the BJP out of power in the state.

After the elections, the then leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, had to clarify in Parliament that the Prime Minister did not mean to question Singh’s commitment to the nation.